NH AG certain death of former Milford woman’s husband in 2001 was suicide

The Attorney General’s office is certain that the death of Doreen Dufresne’s former husband in 2001 was a suicide.

Dufresne, 52, of Port Orange, Fla., and formerly of Milford, was convicted May 23 of trying to hire a hit man to kill her third husband, which raised questions about the death of her second husband in New Hampshire 12 years ago.

Lawrence Blackwood, 48, of Goffstown, died from drinking antifreeze three months after he and Dufresne were married in July 2001.

Dixie cups of the substance were reportedly found in his bathroom.

Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin said this week that he is “comfortable with the state medical examiner’s results” that showed Blackwood’s death was a suicide and that Blackwood left suicide notes.

A Florida jury took less than three hours to find Dufresne guilty of solicitation of first-degree murder. She faces up to 30 years in prison and will be sentenced later. After her arrest last year, she told police she was angry with Neil Suchy because he did not give her money he had promised her and did not provide for her, her daughter and her granddaughter, who lived on welfare.

Police said she confessed to trying to have an acquaintance kill Suchy for $25,000.

When she lived in Milford, Dufresne was the subject of news stories about her health and financial problems, and friends held a benefit for her at the middle school in 2002.

Last week, she called The Telegraph to say “I am not a black widow” and said she will appeal the solicitation case.

Blackwood’s brothers said Dufresne might have driven their brother to suicide.

Dufresne had accused Lawrence Blackwood of assault, leading to a suspension at his job as a guard in a minimum-security prison and the confiscation of his weapons, said Lee Blackwood, of New Jersey, recently.

Martin Blackwood, who lives in Maryland, said Lawrence, who also worked as a photographer, had taken photos of a wedding that Dufresne stashed away.

“I think that was one of the things that pushed him over the edge,” he said. “He trusted everybody, and I always thought she took advantage.”